B&W -- Experiment with Texture

[spinaltap]

I took this shot last week in Colonial Williamsburg, a friend of mine pointe dout the crack in the old brick and i took a shot of it, not thinking it would turn out as a really interesting picture. So lo and behold, I'm processing some stuff the other day and i decide to play around with this one and convert it to black and white, and only then it struck me as really interesting. The B&W brought out the texture on the brick and brought out other details. So I processed it and did some dodging and burning and here it is. Comments and critiques are always welcome!

http://spinaltap.smugmug.com/photos/32303881-L.jpg

[Kaydee]

I love rich texture in B&W. This is a very nice example. Thanks for sharing! :)

[spinaltap]

I love rich texture in B&W. This is a very nice example. Thanks for sharing! :)

Thank you for the comment and compliment :) I had given up hope that I would get a response on this one.

[Sabina]

Oh I love this. It really jumps out at me, the image is very strong. I really like extreme closeups of things like this. Well done.

[_Bam_]

Great subject for black and white, wonderful texture. Well done

[d100763]

Good shot, it is one of those that grows on you and many
may pass up on initial glance. The more I look at it the more
cracks and imperfections I notice, and the light/shadow sell the
corner well, well composed shot.

[spinaltap]

Thank you for the comments and critiques once again. :) I really appreciate them, it helps me to learn what works and what doesn't. I was torn in the dodging/burning process about how to bring out some details, so i went light, mainly brought up the highlights in the mortar cracks on the right hand side and the shadows on the big crack in the left hand side.

[d100763]

I was torn in the dodging/burning process about how to bring out some details, so i went light, ...

You shouldn't lose sleep over it, you did well, I think most people
tend to go overboard with the dodge/burn tool and pics start to
look blotched. YOu have good balance and it is done tastefully...

[MTalley]

First of all, excellent job conveying the texture of the bricks. I generally agree with everyone else's comments.

If I may nitpick on one tiny little thing - the rounded dark area at the bottom-left of the frame. The human eye naturally enters a photograph from the bottom-left and that's the first place I stopped and got hung up there, briefly. Fortunately, the strong diagonal line of the larger crack took me on out of there and invited me to discover the remainder of the rich texture of the bricks.

I think if you narrowed it up a smidge, to get rid of that small distraction, you'd have a 10 on your hands. (As it is, it's a really excellent 9.5).

By the way, I think I've scratched the inside of my monitor glass scrolling that picture up and down. :D

[cjm]

That works very nicely. I like what you did with it.

[Kaydee]

Thank you for the comment and compliment :) I had given up hope that I would get a response on this one.

My first photo post went without comment and from then on I go "forum trollin" every now and then to see who hasn't gotten feedback. No one should have to get discouraged because people don't take a second to comment...good or bad. :)

Sometimes a good one just slips through the cracks of the thread. :D

Also, I agree with Malcolm about the bottom left corner. And you might try a tiny bit more burn on the botton horizontal grout line.

[spinaltap]

Thank you guys for all your comments and critiques. I'm gonna monkey around with this one once I get enough time, as far as where i could crop it to make that circle less distracting.

[Kukalie]

I like your B&W convertion. And it looks even better on your homepage where theres a bark background